Monday, August 29, 2011

This year is the International Year fo Chemistry, as the Chemistry teachers know! And I am sure that they are preparing fantatisc activities to share with the students to motivate them in Chemistry curriculum, now that the real school-season is there.

"Many people have heard of Tom Lehrer's 'The Elements' song. One day I decided to search for it online to memorise some stuff about the elements and found out that Daniel 'Harry Potter' Radcliffe had recently recited it on TV. I wondered what he (and the viewers) might have learnt about the elements by listening to it but shock horror...after listening I realised the song hadn't actually toldme anything about The Periodic Table, except what's on it!

So I decided to do my own song, specifically about The Periodic Table.

The chorus contains the first 36 elements in order up to Krypton.

The first verse covers general info about the Periodic table.

The second verse lists the Alkali Metals and The Alkaline Earth Metals.

The third verse lists the Halogens and the Noble Gases.

Let me know if this rap helps you at all... or if it doesn't. (...) good luck with your studies, or thirst for knowledge."

Well, Kuiper is a student too. And inspired by Harry Potter star, Daniel Rafcliff, he decided to create his own rap to memorise the elements for Chemistry lesson.

Education:

As you see, the students are very creative if we can listen to them.

I'm sure your students are too. In a trans-curriculum - Chemistry, Languages and Music - propose your class to create different songs - rap! they really like it - about different subjects from Chemistry curriculum.

Remember! Educators can share, discuss and plan ideas for IYC 2011here. There already a lot of activities and projects for different countries and schools on the webpage of IYC2011.

Students can plan activities with their educators in the classroom and then share for IYC 2011, by country, here

And to add an event or events to thelist, go to the Activities section and submit a description of the activity.

Typical events or activities could be at the local, state, regional, or national level, and might include... read more

Some conclusions:

The activities can be developed in Elementary education and Secondary Education. It's up to the educators motivate the students. Never forget it!

You will be delighted how the students are amazing when they are free to demonstrate their creativity in the classroom.

Don't underestimate your students capacities, even the reluctant ones to learn some difficult subjects in the school curricula.

Encourage the interest of young people in chemistry;

Generate enthusiasm for the creative future of chemistry;

Celebrate the role of women in chemistry or major historical events in chemistry, including the centenaries of Mme. Curie’s Nobel Prize and the founding of the International Association of Chemical Societies.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

At eveningthey grow weary, the patio's two or three colours.Tonight, the moon, bright circle,fails to dominate space.Patio, channel of sky.The patio is the slopedown which sky flows into the house.Serene,eternity waits at the crossroad of stars.It's pleasant to live in the friendly darkof entrance-way, arbour, and cistern.

Jorge Luis Borges, A Patio

Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentine poet essayist, and short-story writer whose works have become classics of 20th-century world literature was born on August 24, 1899, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

He is best known for his fantastic short stories and influential essays and poetry. Through his work, Latin American literature emerged from the academic realm into the realm of generally educated readers.

Everything has been designed to mimic the outline of the letters which make up the traditional Google logo."It reminds us a lot of Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan. Perhaps that film drew from Borges ideas.

Who knows if Inception is a science-fiction movie whose scenarios and ideas about subconscious was really inspired on Borges.

Jorge Luis Borgeswas an Argentine writer best known today for his fantastic short stories and influential essays and poetry.Borges' works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre.In honor of Jorge Luis Borges's birthday, Google has prepared this special Doodle. Google is giving tribute to another legend of Literature this year, after the Portuguese author Fernando Pessoa (June 13) and the French writer Jules Verne (February 8), this time the Argentine writer Jose Luis Borges.

Some Biographic facts:Borges was born in an educated middle-class family on August, 24th 1899 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He died on June 14, 1986. He is a famous writer, poet, essayist and translator.

In 1914,Borges moved with his family to Switzerland, where he began to study languages (German, French, Latin). From his early days he used to speak English. He received education at home until the age of 11 in two languages, Spanish and English.

Borges' family resided in a huge home with an English library with more than one thousand volumes. After the World War I ended, the family spent three years residing in a number of cities such as Lugano, Barcelona, Majorca, Seville, and Madrid.

He returned to Argentina in 1921, where he began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals.

He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955 he was appointed director of the National Public Library - Biblioteca Nacional - and professor of Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. For Latin American writers, he revolutionised the way language was used.

"I read Borges for his extraordinary ability at verbal artifice; he's a man who teaches you how to write ... to sharpen your instrument for saying things."

By the late 1950s, he had become completely blind. Neither the coincidence nor the irony of his blindness as a writer escaped Borges:

Nadie rebaje a lágrima o reproche

esta declaración de la maestría

de Dios, que con magnífica ironía

me dio a la vez los libros y la noche.

In 1961, he came to international attention when Borges received the first International Publishers’ Prize, major European award, the Prix Formentor. He shared the prize with Samuel Beckett, with whom he represents, in Brian Dillon's words, the "obscure conduit ... from modernism to postmodernism". In 1971 he won the Jerusalem Prize.

His work was translated and published widely in the United States and in Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages.

He died in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1986.

"His works have contributed to the genre of science fiction as well as the genre of magical realism, a genre that reacted against the realism/naturalism of the nineteenth century. In fact, critic Angel Flores, the first to use the term, set the beginning of this movement with Borges’s Historia Universal de la Infamia (1935). His late poems dialogue with such cultural figures as Spinoza, Camões, and Virgil.”

In our days, people know Jorge Luis Borges more by his short stories, compiled in the books Ficciones (1944) and The Aleph (1949) drew heavily on dreams, ornate architecture, religion, libraries and animals.

He is widely acclaimed as one of the main contributors to modern day science fiction.

Though he didn’t received Nobel Prize in Literature, but he is a great writer. He deserved to be honored with the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Jorge Luís Borges

credits: Spinnnetto

Museo del Humor/ Argentina

Education:“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” F. Scott Fitzgerald

Teaching Literature is beautiful. I'm teaching Literature - Master in Literature - and love it. I love books. And I love to read. I prepare my lessons with enthusiasm sometimes fervently. Books are fascinating. Reading is even better.A teacher who loves books, her lessons are a huge success. Students feel her love of reading. They will be captivated, even the reluctant readers. Perhaps some of them will dare to begin to write? Not the first time, believe me!

And more... please use the tag Literature on my blog and you will find some other interesting ideas. I hope!

Jorge Luís Borgescredits: Luis Silva

Resources:

Social media are interesting resources to include into school curricula. Students will develop critical thinking and several projects can be done with students and teachers from different schools from other countries.

Dare to use social networking in your lessons. Students will be happy. This is a new generation, the screen generation.

Of course, don't forget school libraries! A Library is the most value to do some scholar research. Of course you know Borges' quote:

Writer and essayist J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize 2003 said: "He, (Borges) more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish American novelists."

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Recent Publications

Souto, G. (2013) Time for Action: New Challenges in Secondary Education. At Conference Proceedings, International Conference The Future of Education, Florence, Italy.

Souto, G. (2013) Visionary Learning for 2030: Secondary Education. In Booklet online "Vision on Open Education 2030 Part 2: School Education", European Commission and The Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS).

TEDxKids Brussels 2011

Gina Souto was guest tweeting from TEDxKids in Brussels on June 1st."48 kids, all of them born in 2000, are going get their hands dirty, soldering, tinkering, hacking and composing. A series of hands-on workshops will introduce the kids to a range of skills and methods.

At the same time 400 adults will be treated to an all day program of leading thinkers, experts and makers."

The twitter address is @TEDxKidsEU and there was a fantastic live stream from the event.